I Am Legend Comparison Essay

Will Smith has been in numerous successful films during the last two decades that he has been acting. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films reach the $100 million mark in the United States alone. Two of Will’s more recent films that he stared in are “I Am Legend” and “Hancock”. These two films are both the story of the struggles that a lonely man goes through just trying to survive each day. My personal favorite, “I Am Legend”, is about a United States Army lieutenant and virologist named Robert Neville that lives in New York City with his wife and daughter. A new drug that cures cancer, with 100% success, was released and has been widely used around the world, without the proper studies and experiments being done beforehand.
The drug eventually turns the people that used it into zombie-like creatures that prey on the non-infected around them. These creatures cannot go out into the sunlight because their skin has become extremely sensitive to light, causing it to burn easily. The infected cities are evacuated to more rural areas to decrease the rate of this spreading virus and Robert is left behind to help combat the spread of it. During the frantic evacuation of Manhattan, Robert sees his wife and daughter’s helicopter crash on its way to safety. The movie flashes to Robert alone in his home that he has built to survive in the dangerous city in which now he seems to be the only person still alive. He has been testing on rats to find a cure for the virus in the laboratory in his basement. He is saved one night by a woman and her son passing through on their way to a colony of people living in Vermont. Robert finds the cure to the virus but dies in the process. The cure eventually makes its way to the colony in Vermont to be studied and used, creating the legend of Robert that the movie is named after. Will Smith’s other movie, “Hancock” is about a depressed, confused and lonely superhero named John Hancock that lives in Los Angeles .
Hancock is a miserable drunk that fights crime without considering the consequences of his recklessness. He costs the city millions of dollars in damage each time he rescues or apprehends people. When an unsuccessful businessman, Ray Embrey, gets caught in traffic on top of a railroad track with a train coming down the line, Hancock comes to save the day. Instead of getting Ray out of the way of the train, Hancock stands in the way of the train and with his invulnerability, derails the train and ruins the train engine. The city has had enough of Hancock’s recklessness so they jail him, and Ray convinces Hancock to not break out so that the city will realize how much they need him. Los Angeles eventually needs Hancock for a hostage situation in a bank, so they release him so that he can save all the hostages. Ray convinces Hancock to do a neat, honorable job this time, in which he does and receives a pardon for the destruction he had caused. Hancock finds out that Ray’s wife, Mary, is his other half, and has the same superpowers as he does. She tells him that they are meant to be together but become immortal when they are. The bank robber tries to get his revenge on Hancock but both Hancock and Mary get shot and the only way for both of them to live is to depart from each other so that the immortality will set back in. So to save their
lives, Hancock relocates to New York to live his life alone like he was before. In both of these films, Will Smith played a hero that is alone in their own world as they go through hardships each day just to make it to the next. They both encounter somebody helpful and new entering their life and helping them through it all, which in the end leads to their demise. This is shown by death for Robert Neville and relocation to a new, lonely place for John Hancock. Both main character’s achievements help society out by saving the lives of the people that need it. And they both end with an unhappy ending, which in both movies contributes to the hero image of the characters. “I Am Legend” starts a couple of years in the future in relation to real time, in the ruins of what used to be New York. The goal of the main character, Robert, is to save mankind and restore the way of life that was abandoned when most of the world was infected or killed by the new virus. All the damage has been done by years of decay from time and the creatures that have inhabited the buildings in the area. None of the survivors know anything about Robert’s quest to save them from what has happened. “Hancock” is based on the present and on a superhero that is doing the damage to the city himself and harming the people that are around him. He is seen as a hero in the eyes of children but is disapproved of by the adults of the city for his lack of preservation while doing these “good deeds”. All in all, these are two great movies that are similar but different in many ways. Will Smith did a great job acting in these movies while the producers and directors also did a great job showing how a struggling person can get through the hard times with help from the people accompanying them.